


Instead of Sleeping

by yellowrooster



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics), Superboy (Comics), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Blanket Permission, Blanket Permission On My Profile, Constructive Criticism Welcome, Fanfiction, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I literally have a job interview tomorrow what's wrong with me, In-Universe RPF, LLF Comment Project, M/M, Sorry Jaime is not a major character, fortunately for y'all i think i do better in stressful situations when i'm sleep deprived, guys my job interview went well, i think i was just hired, no beta we die like robins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:46:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24733333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yellowrooster/pseuds/yellowrooster
Summary: Kon overhears a conversation and discovers fanfiction.
Relationships: Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent
Comments: 15
Kudos: 128





	Instead of Sleeping

It was a Friday night, and Kon was flying lazily in a scenic, U-shaped flight path on his way to the Titans’ Tower. There was some kind of big snowstorm plaguing the states in between the Kent Farm and the tower. 

Kon was pretty sure he’d be fine flying through it---just look at all the commercial airliners doing just fine, Ma!---but Ma wouldn’t hear of it. She’d been all worried, warning him to make sure to stay out of its way while outfitting him with a thick wool coat and scratchy scarf. 

(He wasn’t sure how she could reconcile the fact that he and Clark had no problem with their bare skin exposed to the unforgiving vacuum of  _ outer space, _ but a snowstorm was apparently Too Much For Them.)

Kon would have done it anyway, but he was pretty sure Ma would just  _ know. _

Kon thought about detouring towards Gotham and giving Tim a lift, but he was already late---because, detention,  _ again--- _ and Tim always managed to arrive before him anyway. 

(At this point, it was kind of a thing that people with superspeed always ended up being late. Kon couldn’t really explain it, but it was invariably true nonetheless.)

Still, Kon kept to the edges of the storm, probably a little closer than Ma was comfortable with, because he didn’t want to make this flight as infuriatingly long as it would have been otherwise. So, when Kon touched down at the Titans’ Tower, he had frost in his hair and a snowflake or two daintily melting on the flush on his cheeks. 

_ Recognized: Superboy B04.  _

Inside, Cassie and Bart were sitting together, seriously discussing something. Cassie was leaning forward, making big hand gestures. Jaime Reyes---the Blue Beetle---stood nearby, listening silently. 

It was Cassie’s voice that caught Kon’s attention first. 

(And not in  _ that _ kind of way. This wasn’t a Harlequin romance novel, for God’s sake.)

It was what she was saying that made Kon stop dead in his tracks. 

“So, at this point, I’m getting really worried about Tim, right?” she said, and Bart nodded in that way he does when everything’s going too slow for him and he wants to know what happened  _ now now now _ . 

Kon squinted his eyes. He got the feeling. 

_ Why was Cassie worried about Tim? _

“So, I continued,” she said. (Bart nodded again in the yes-yes-yes-next way of his.) “And what happened was that he got transferred to another universe with the current Robin who was trying to kill him again after Nightwing died---”

Kon’s heart dropped. “Nightwing  _ died? _ ” he croaked out. Tim must be  _ devastated. _ (And in another universe?) 

His teammates’ heads swiveled, finally noticing that Kon is there, expressions of horror on their faces. 

“Wait---” Bart said. 

“Where’s Tim?” Kon asked, sure Tim was off collecting some of Nightwing’s DNA to clone him or joining a cult or---worst of all---crying in his bedroom alone because his big brother figure was gone.  _ Forever. _ “Does he need to be rescued? Is he back in this universe again? God, why didn’t you  _ tell _ me, I would have flown faster, I  _ would not  _ have stopped for snacks on the way here, what’s  _ wrong _ with you---”

“No, Kon, you’re misunderstanding,” said Cassie, but Kon was already scanning the tower for other life signs, attuned to Tim’s specific ones---okay, he was in his room, he wasn’t crying, he was alone, and,  _ fuck _ , maybe that was worse, maybe Tim wasn’t able to mourn Nightwing’s death because no one was there to comfort him---

“Hey, hey, Kon! Hey, hey, hey!” said Bart, blurring a little as he waved a hand in front of Kon’s face to get his attention. 

“You just left him alone in his room!” Kon accused them. 

“Nightwing isn’t really dead!” Cassie exclaimed, and that,  _ that _ was enough to get Kon to stop and look at her. 

_ Wait, what? _

There was a beat when nobody said anything, and Kon began to doubt his experience of reality. 

Then, Jaime spoke. “It’s a story,” he said. 

And Kon squinted because Kon was pretty sure he’d gotten that the first time. “Like… a  _ fake _ story?” he asked. 

Kon knew that those existed, thanks to Ms. Applebaum and Kon’s American Lit English class and the confusing experience  _ The Great Gatsby _ had been, but he had so far read no more than four of those in his life, and one of them was for summer reading homework that he’d only kind of skimmed, unless you counted the articles printed on The Gotham Times  _ Society _ page which Tim usually dismissed a pure slander. Because, hey, so sue him that the scientists at Cadmus hadn’t really thought there was a need to read Superman’s clone bedtime stories or anything. 

“Uh… yeah,” said Bart. "Basically, I was doing research on some hero stuff after I read the whole San Francisco public library, and I discovered this thing called fanfiction and some of it’s super  _ crash _ ,” he said, back on the couch and patting the spot next to him to indicate the Kon should sit down. “Some of it’s also kinda  _ not crash _ , but obviously we aren’t reading any of that type.”

“Fanfiction?” Kon asked slowly, mind beginning to actually comprehend what they were saying now that he was pretty sure Tim wasn’t secretly bawling his eyes out alone in that stoic Bats-are-always-fine thing of his. "Like… fan stories." 

“Yeah, wish fulfillment, mostly,” said Cassie.

“About… Tim… and Robin and Nightwing? Do they know his civilian ID?” 

“Okay,” said Cassie. “You are profoundly good at missing the point, Kon. No, they have no idea what his ID is, they just call him Red Robin.”

Kon felt a little stumped. “So, there’s no actual reason you were worrying about Tim?” he asked her. 

Cassie laughed. “No, not in real life,” she assured him. “I’m just talking to Bart about this remarkably true-to-life fic I found---it’s got everyone’s backstories totally wrong, but everyone’s pretty much in character, as far as I can tell.”

Bart and Jaime appeared to agree, and Kon considered this. “And your wish fulfillment is that Tim is sent to an alternate universe with the demon brat is trying to kill him and Nightwing is dead?” he asked. 

“Well, not really,” Cassie said.

“Totally not crash,” said Bart. 

“We’re reading for the battle strategies,” said Jaime. 

“Yeah,” said Cassie, pointing a finger at Jaime. “ _ That. _ This author thinks of really good solutions to supervillain’s evil schemes. They solve problems we’ ve never even encountered before!”

“It totally counts at training,” Bart said. “Plus, they think of really good one liners! Like, there was this one villain turning everyone into children and dropping them off at a school during recess and fake me showed up and said, ‘Wanna play tag?’”

“And puns,” Cassie added. “Some really good puns.”

“Puns,” Kon repeated, then shook his head. “So why does Tim get sent to another universe on his own---does he even call and ask us to help him?”

“Well, he does,” said Cassie. “Which is what makes it super sad because Batman actually calls it off because he doesn’t want any metas in Gotham...”

(Of course, Batman ruining  _ everything _ again with that rule.)

After giving a brief overview, Cassie continued, trying to continue where she left off with Bart. “And once Tim was stabbed by Robin, he took out the glowing amulet---”

“ _ What amulet? _ ” Kon asked, because he was pretty sure it had not been mentioned so far. 

“Chapter four,” Jaime told him, distractedly. “What does the amulet do?”

“So, I know we were betting on this,” said Cassie. “But don’t get your hopes up. None of us were right. When he takes the jewel out of the amulet, he ends up time traveling, except in this alternate universe and he sees how alternate!Tim grew up instead.”

“Dang,” said Bart. “I thought it would make him fall in love with the first person he saw.”

“That line the fortune-teller said in Chapter Five was somewhat deceiving,” agreed Jaime. 

“The money in the betting pool goes to charity, like we agreed?” Cassie asked, like she was making sure. 

“Okay, but what was the amulet again?” Kon asked, feeling lost and left out of the evident Titans’ Book Club. “And when did he meet a fortune teller?”

Jaime, Bart, and Cassie looked at him with identical glances in unison. 

“You should probably read the fic,” said Cassie. 

“It doesn’t take that long to read with superspeed,” said Bart. “So catching up shouldn’t be that hard. I only listen to Cassie’s recaps because sometimes I forget the important stuff before the next chapter comes out. It’ll be a breeze!”

Kon wasn’t sure, even as he let Cassie send him the link.. He  _ already _ had English homework. Some sort of essay about symbols and metaphorical meaning. 

Was he really going to read a fake story  _ on top of  _ that?

***

Yes. 

The answer turned out to be yes. 

Eight chapters deep in the fanfiction they’d recommended to him, and Kon could see what they meant about everyone being in character. 

(The most glaring mistake they’d made so far was Superman actually liking Superboy, and… uh, didn’t that hurt more than Kon was expecting.) 

And the author was actually really good at motivational speeches. Every few chapters they had someone calling another hero out on something they did and telling them how to do better. They’d even managed to make Kon want to quit smoking on fictional Red Hood’s behalf! 

And even though they didn’t quite capture any of their voices right---Kon thought his was pretty close, probably based on the stuff he’d say when he was famous in Hawaii and everything, but their Red Robin was a little bit less serious and more teenager-y than Tim usually let himself be around people like Batman. 

They also got the layout of the Hall of Justice terribly wrong---although that can hardly be counted against them given that it isn’t even the Justice League’s real headquarters and they  _ wanted _ outsiders to have no idea of the layout.

But he agreed with them---it was a good story. Kon  _ liked _ reading about a ‘Superman’ who would play fetch with ‘Krypto the Superdog’ and teach ‘Superboy’ how to play ball. (The author was seemingly under the impression that Kon was Superman’s son in… more than just cloning, possibly.) But Kon couldn’t really confuse that Superman with actual Clark based on how warm and friendly he seemed to be. 

With Kon’s scenes with Tim, though… He kinda could. 

Kon wondered if they were just such stereotypical best friends that anybody writing a story about them could do it that easily. Somehow, this author  _ got _ it. They got the way Tim was serious and mission-focused and was the type to wear a mask under a mask and they even got that he was paranoid and ready for anything. They got how much Kon liked flying while holding Tim, even if he sometimes complained that he wasn’t a taxi service, and they somehow, inexplicably, got the way they would sometimes sit together in Kon’s room and not talk and it was okay. 

So, enjoying this, Kon clicked on the author’s username and scrolled down to see an impressively long list of works which he guessed were probably similar to the one he’d been recommended---an incredibly engaging, mission-focused story centered on the Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman, and the Flash and their protegés in a grueling, difficult situation. Kon was honestly pretty sure if anything like it happened in real life---hostile alien invasion with not one, but two magical attacks from villains on either side and on top of that most of the members of the Bat clan scattered across various universes or dead---Kon would pretty seriously reconsider all his life choices which got him to that point. 

The story was good---especially the amulet arc, actually---and Kon found himself frustrated when he hit Chapter 23 and realized there was no ‘Next Chapter’ button to press, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t entirely his thing. At least not all of it. 

It was a lot of work to do all this reading when about half of the words amounted to how… attractive the author thought Nightwing looked in his suit, which---no judgment there---was bearable, but another significant percentage was dedicated to how the author appreciated the tight fit of the Superman suit, and Kon skimmed those bits  _ very _ quickly. 

But Kon thought this author was very good at figuring out the right moves for the heroes to make while under pressure, so he decided to glance at some of the others. 

A lot of them were mostly about Clark, which was pretty disappointing. It was usually Clark and someone else, and Kon thought this author maybe really liked to send Superman on individual missions with different members of the Justice League. 

Kon found a funny one with the team and Krypto, which the author said in a note was based on things that their dog did at home. Well, funny until it made him cry (which Kon would never admit to.) But if he  _ did _ cry, it was justified! Because it was really sad that dogs think their owners are never coming back every time they leave and sometimes they’re right. 

Kon, almost wishing he hadn’t read that one, left an comment without making an account. 

‘I hope u were wrong about how Krypto felt when I died. - Superboy’

Even though it had made him sad, he still left one of those hearts for good measure. 

When Kon happened upon one that listed him and Tim as the main characters (tagged Superboy/Red Robin) and had “mission!fic” written in the summary, it seemed kind of similar to the first one he’d read, except with none of those ‘sad’ and ‘major character death’ tags and hopefully with less of a focus on Clark, he didn’t even pause before clicking on it. 

Kon wondered what kind of mission the author would put him and Tim on. Maybe they’d even had a few more of those good catchphrases and one-liners like in the last fic---Kon had already begun a list to use in fights if they ever came up. 

This author had written such a good friendship between him and Tim in the one Cassie and Bart and Jaime had recommended---so Kon was honestly pretty excited. Plus it was labelled ‘happy ending’ with a winky face, so only good things could come of that. 

Yup, Kon was sure this one would be even better than the first one!

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:  
> \- Short comments  
> \- Long comments  
> \- Questions  
> \- Constructive criticism  
> \- “<3” as extra kudos  
> \- Reader-reader interaction  
> This author replies to comments.


End file.
